Napolitano: Drone policy 'much narrower' than law permits

3/4/13 2:46 PM EST

The Obama Administration's policy on so-called targeted killings of terrorism suspects is far more restrained than the law permits, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said Monday.

"In terms of kill or capture, these are among—should be among the most difficult decisions that are made. There, I think, is an emerging policy framework around how those decisions are made," Napolitano said at a POLITICO Playbook breakfast at the Newseum.

"There’s a legal framework which, really when you read the law and you read, for example, what the attorney general has said among others, there’s a very broad legal framework in which you can operate, but the policy framework is and should be much narrower. So, I think that is the framework that people should have confidence that is being exercised and know that these decisions are made very, very carefully," the secretary said.

Napolitano never mentioned the primary means the U.S. Government uses to carry out killings of terrorism suspects abroad: armed drones. Armed drone operations are carried out by the military and the Central Intelligence Agency and are usually considered classified, though officials sometimes discuss drones publicly at a high level of generality.

Napolitano commented in response to a question from this reporter about a claim by Newsweek's Dan Klaidman that Napolitano was among senior administration officials who argued internally in the fall of 2011 against making more information public about the legal rationale and decision-making policy on drone strikes. (This reporter described the claim as appearing in Klaidman's book, "Kill or Capture," but it was actually published by Newsweek in January 2012.)

The Homeland Security Secretary never said specifically Monday whether she counseled the administration against further transparency on drone operations.

While Napolitano did not explain how President Barack Obama's drone policy is 'narrower' than the law would allow, officials have spoke about authorizing the use of lethal force against "senior operational leaders" of Al Qaeda or related groups. In ordinary combat, virtually any member of an enemy force can be lawfully targeted. That could potentially involve low-level figures and propagandists or figures who are primarily inspirational, not operational.

A Justice Department white paper leaked to NBC News last month blessed the use of lethal force against a "senior operational leader" of Al Qaeda or an associated force who is a U.S. citizen. That memo said it was not addressing the "minimum requirements necessary to render such an operation lawful." It's possible that other Justice Department legal opinions address the breadth of the U.S.'s claimed authority to use lethal force in other circumstances, because those memos are classified.

CORRECTION (Monday, 3:14 P.M.): This post has been updated to indicate that Klaidman's report was in Newsweek, not his book.